Join our Shakespeare Nation Community Group

We’re on the lookout for people to join our Community Company in collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Shakespeare Nation provides opportunities for adults to become Shakespeare Champions, joining workshops with professionals from the Royal Shakespeare Company, including actors, directors and voice experts, before creating our own theatrical pieces. A programme of activity has begun, including work with a mixture of writers, directors and choreographers based in Cornwall and from the RSC’s own team.

We want to hear from you if you’re interested in onstage or offstage opportunities, whether you have a love of Shakespeare or whether it terrifies you. We are particularly interested in hearing from individuals new to performing alongside more seasoned Shakespeare enthusiasts, and all we ask is that you have a love of theatre, a passion for performance and want to have fun whilst creating.

Making a start with our core company, a small group assembled at the end of October 2021 to make a film based on the opening sections of ‘Comedy of Errors’. This was taken up to Stratford at the end of November 2021 and presented as part of an RSC sharing event with the other Shakespeare Nation groups from across the country.
Click HERE to watch the video

What followed was an abridged version of ‘Comedy of Errors’, performed live on the Hall for Cornwall stage on Sunday 10th April 2022. The play was directed by Alister O’Loughlin and Miranda Henderson from Prodigal Theatre (https://prodigalupg.com/prodigal-theatre/). Assistant Director, Sam Colborne. Producer, Helen Tiplady.

Photo courtesy of Hugh Hastings

If you’re interested in joining Shakespeare Nation, please register your interest with Sam Rankin from the Get Creative Team: [email protected] 

Please let us know anything we can do to make your experience of participating easier – we are committed to helping to break down barriers to attending. All workshops and sessions are free.

In partnership with

37 Plays

In 2022, the RSC launced a national playwrighting project called 37 Plays. In collaboration with their Associate Regional Theatres (of which the Hall for Cornwall is one), 37 Plays is a call to get the nation writing in order to create an ambitious volume of contemporary dramatic works which respond to the world in which we live.

As part of the RSC’s search for 37 State of the Nation plays, the Hall for Cornwall and The Writers’ Block ran a series of playwrighting workshops. Led by some of Cornwall’s finest playwrights and theatre makers, these workshops provided a creative space to support emerging writers, or anyone interested in submitting a play. Thank you to everyone who joined us for our workshops, which took place in Winter 2022, we cannot wait to see how you take these skills forward into the writing world!

A special thank you to the following for leading the 37 plays workshops in Cornwall…

Jon Nash (Comedy Writing Workshop)

This workshop put character at the heart of things: the people we write, the situations we put them in and how to push the comedy until the audiences are rolling in the aisles (in a good way!)

Callum Mitchell (A Sense of Place Workshop)

A strong sense of place is crucial to all forms of storytelling, allowing audiences to fully immerse themselves in the world you wish to create. Callum guided participants through the essential elements that help distinguish place, and how a fully-realised setting can inform and establish character, plot, dialogue and more.

Jenni Fletcher (Turning Ideas into Text)

This workshop was for people who don’t think they’re writers. Jenni explored different ways to communicate an idea at its best and how to enable other mediums like movement or music in the writing to enhance a narrative and draw out unique qualities of the work.

Mike Shepherd (Holding up a Mirror to the World)

“Theatre needs to be relevant, funny, sad, shocking, challenging, entertaining, a bit rude and not too long!” This evening workshop with Mike Shepherd whose recent shows Calvino Nights, Ubu, Tin Drum and Dead Dog in a Suitcase have been all of these things.

Simon Harvey (Finding the Framework)

The idea of sitting down to write ‘a play’ can be an overwhelming. This workshop looked at how to collate and order ideas, themes, images and restrictions to develop a framework around which to layer and build into a play.

Jon Welch (Writing for Large Casts)

The workshop covered how to curate a group, how to balance ‘challenge’ with a realistic chance of success and how to work with a variety of participants who have different challenges and strengths.

Anna Murphy (Making the Ordinary Extraordinary)

Based on Anna’s experience of the Rambles project “Walk with Me”, walking the roads less travelled from Penzance to Bogota, collecting stories from people met on the way, the workshop looked at how you as a writer might honour stories based on peoples lives.

Sarah Dickinson (Dramaturge)

Starting a play for the first time can be daunting. This workshop explored the drafting process of a new play, how you can build it iteratively, and the ways you can enjoy your strengths and build on the areas you find more challenging.

For any further information contact [email protected] and/or [email protected]

In collaboration with